The adventure goes on …
Traditionally, we usually harvest our root vegetables in the fall and store them in a root cellar over the winter. However, with our high water table in the winter, a root cellar just isn’t feasible. Last year, I harvested my tubers and tried storing them in tubs of sand above ground. This was a resounding failure – I ended up freezing most of my crop. This year, it was time for a new experiment.
Winter solstice has passed, Christmas has been enjoyed, and here we are … we’ve gained a whole entire minute of daylight!
As a person who lives off-grid with an old truck and older boats, I’ve often found myself crawling, squirming, or otherwise maneuvering into tight spaces within their mechanical anatomy in order to repair something or other that has chosen NOW to reach the state we commonly refer to as FUBAR. I find that my personal experiences often get reflected in my writing.
I decided a while back that I should write my science fiction stories under a pseudonym, partly to keep my fiction and nonfiction writing separate, but also, who is going to buy a book by Barb Faggetter (other than her friends)?? It’s just one of those names … so if I have to struggle with the weird name problem, why not just make one up that is completely free of any baggage. So, meet Eldranth Föalen, one of the main characters in my novel.
Well, we finally won the marten war. We managed to get the soffits (shiny black material located in the eaves in the above photo) installed in and around weeks of rain. Mr. (or Mrs.) marten has been around, checking out our work, and has deemed the cabin completely marten proof.
I’m a scientist, and it seems to me that if I’m going to write some fiction, it’s likely to be science fiction. Like duh …
I haven’t posted much on my blog recently, and there’s a reason for this … I’ve been writing.
People always ask us if we have problems with bears. The last two summers, our answer was “no”. This summer, we have a little black bear …
Boats seem an inevitable part of our existence, living up near the head of an inlet as we do. Every year, I think, “Well, the boats are in good condition this year, we’ve done lots of work on them, and everything should be fine.” And every year, our boats work hard to add just a little more adventure to our lives than maybe we really wanted.
The summer solstice is past and summer’s finally here. The weather has become typically hot and dry, with no rain in sight for weeks. It’s time to start harvesting the garden before everything dries up and dies. As part of that process, we decided to build a solar dehydrator.